by Mike Stubbs - Freelance esport journalist

The Allied Esports Odyssey Ignition Series event once again brought the top teams in Europe together to battle it out for a championship, but a smaller field and long group stage allowed us to get in-depth looks at the six top teams in Europe, including some new rosters and organisations.

G2 Esports, Team Liquid, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Vodafone Giants were all invited to the competition, with BBL Esports and FunPlus Phoenix coming through the qualifiers. While G2 has been pretty dominant in Europe so far this event was one of the closest yet, with a ton of crazy matches throughout the competition and some of the biggest plays we have seen yet in Valorant.

The Big Stories

G2 win the Allied Esports Odyssey despite personal tragedy

https://twitter.com/AlliedEsports/status/1295134533109477376?s=20

Once again G2 Esports took the win in an Ignition Series event, claiming a fourth win in a row. For anyone who has kept up with the EU scene that result will likely not be a shock, but the circumstances that G2 had to overcome in to claim another win certainly tell a story that we haven’t seen before.

After getting off to a good start with a convincing 2-0 win over BBL Esports on day one of the competition G2 was matched up against FunPlus Phoenix on day two. With this being the first event for FPX fans were excited to see what they could do against Europe’s best, and amazingly they took map one 13-10 on Split. But then in map two the unthinkable happened and David "Davidp" Prins got the news mid map that his father had passed away, leaving G2 to play 4v5 for the rest of the map, which they ended up losing.

Despite the heartbreaking loss of his father Davidp returned for day three of the competition, eventually guiding G2 to the tournament win in one of the most impressive performances we have ever seen. When tragedy struck Davidp showed his true colours of a competitor, and that deserves a lot of respect.

Our thoughts go out to Davidp, his family and friends during this difficult time.

Team Liquid and FunPlus Phoenix debut new rosters

It may have been G2 that took the win but there are now some new challengers in the European region, one a familiar group of players under a new name, and the other a new roster of some of Europe’s best players.

Team Liquid was the first of the two new organisations to present a new roster for the EU Valorant scene, with the pickup of the old Fish123 roster. Adam "ec1s" Eccles, Dom "soulcas" Sulcas, James "Kryptix" Affleck and Travis "L1NK" Mendoza, who have been playing together since the first days of the beta, are joined by Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom to form one of the scariest teams in Europe.

https://www.twitch.tv/alliedesports/clip/FantasticCrazyWolfPicoMause

Liquid topped the group stage, only dropping two maps, one to FunPlus Phoenix and the other to G2, and managed a respectable third place in the competition overall, eventually falling to FPX in the lower bracket final. That match could have gone either way, ending 13-11 on Bind.

The other new team was announced just as the competition was getting underway, with FunPlus Phoenix signing the team that qualified for the event under the name ZyppanGoKill. The roster, which features Tobias "shadow" Flodström, Pontus "Zyppan" Eek and Johan "Meddo" Renbjörk Lundborg formerly of Fabriken, and Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow and Andrey "Shao" Kiprsky, formerly of Party Parrots, managed second place and even beat G2 2-0 in the group stage.

https://www.twitch.tv/alliedesports/clip/BoringDeterminedOcelotOSsloth

As a debut for this team and the organisation, this was a great start for FPX, and this roster will no doubt be a force in European Valorant over the next few months.

MVP - David "Davidp" Prins

https://twitter.com/G2Davidp_/status/1295133975569203200

David "Davidp" Prins was not the best player at the tournament statistically, and many would argue that while he played very well if you look purely at the in-game action he would not be the MVP. But that isn’t necessarily what this award is about. When Davidp got the terrible news about his father it looked like G2’s tournament was over, no one would have had any issue if he had not been able to play the rest of the event and that was expected by many.

But Davidp decided that he would play on. He knew that without him G2 stood little chance of winning and despite the worst of personal circumstances he played through and even managed to put on some big performances. For anyone else in that situation, it likely would have been impossible to focus on the game, let alone play at the highest level, but that is exactly what Davidp did, proving that he deserves this MVP award for putting on great performances in a time of unthinkable tragedy.

Top Five Players Of The Tournament

Oscar "mixwell" Cañellas

Nationality: Spanish

Team: G2 Esports

Position: 1st

Main Agent: Jett

https://clips.twitch.tv/EmpathicBlazingLettuceKeyboardCat?tt_content=url&tt_medium=clips_api

Surprisingly Mixwell had a bit of a poor performance in the group stage, with quite a few quiet games where other members of G2 had to put in big performances to pull out a win. G2 even lost multiple maps, something most would have thought unlikely, partly due to Mixwell underperforming. But once the playoffs started Mixwell ascended to another level, going back to his usual self and pulling off massive plays. On the final day of the competition, he was not only statistically the best player, but also the one who picked up the most impactful kills and was a big factor on G2’s impressive final day.

Pontus "Zyppan" Eek

Nationality: Swedish

Team: FunPlus Phoenix

Position: 2nd

Main Agent: Raze

https://twitter.com/AlliedEsports/status/1295126011755950080?s=20

There is a reason that FunPlus Phoenix qualified under the name ZyppanGoKill. The Swedish player is one of the most impressive fraggers in Europe, boasting the highest average combat score and kill total for the entire tournament. His plays might not be the most mind-blowing, but his consistent entries and stunning ability to seemingly always win every outnumbered fight he is in make him a top player in Europe.

Ali Osman "AsLanM4shadoW" Balta

Nationality: Turkish

Team: BBL Esports

Position: 5th

Main Agent: Omen

https://clips.twitch.tv/FancyMoistClintmullinsRiPepperonis

With only the very top teams in Europe competing in the Allied Esports Odyssey tournament there wasn’t much of a chance to get to see newer players, especially with FPX taking up one of the qualifier spots. But the one player we haven’t seen too much of that stood out this past week as AsLan. The Turkish star impressed at the Mandatory.gg Cup but this was his real burst onto the scene, with lots of big Omen plays. Any org looking to build a team could do a lot worse than picking him up as a star player.

Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom

Nationality: Belgian

Team: Team Liquid

Position: 3rd

Main Agent: Reyna

https://www.twitch.tv/alliedesports/clip/TenderTallTrufflePJSalt

ScreaM continues to just be too good at Valorant. While he can have quiet games here and there when he pops off he really pops off like no other player. In a win over G2 on Haven ScreaM went 31/11/6 with an ACS of 403, that was in a match that ended 13-8 as well, so if it had been closer he might have hit a 40 bomb. Europe has a lot of talented players, but when he is playing at his best few can claim to come close to scream.

Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks

Nationality: Latvian

Team: G2 Esports

Position: 1st

Main Agent: Sova

https://www.twitch.tv/alliedesports/clip/IntelligentVibrantLardThunBeast

Putting another G2 player in here might be controversial, but ardiis was once again on fire this tournament. When it comes to pure aim there aren’t many better than him, and that was on show this past week at the Allied Esports Odyssey tournament. There are so many clips to look at but just take a look at the disgusting shot in the clip above and be amazed at just how good ardiis is.

The Best Play Of Allied Esports Odyssey

https://www.twitch.tv/alliedesports/clip/DistinctBluePineappleJebaited

In the world on unwinnable rounds they don’t come much tougher than this. With the spike dropped and near unreachable on the A site of Haven and three teammates down, L1NK and ScreaM have a tough job to push through an Omen Dark Cover, then take down four opponents on the site. But somehow they manage to do just that, and it’s not as if Vodafone Giants play this badly, they react well and should feel confident going for the fights they do. But somehow the boys from Liquid pull off some big shots to win the round and close out the game.

Up Next

Information on the next European Ignition Series event will be coming soon, but for now, you can take a look at some other regions, such as the CGA Pacific Open in South East Asia and the final North America Ignition Series event, Pop Flash, from organisers B Site, which features the top eight teams in NA.